Song of Swords
by crackleviolet
Summary: It's hundreds of years before Ichigo's birth. Hikifune Kirio is sent out to investigate the mysterious deaths of several poor folk in Rukongai, while a noble girl must learn to face the truth about her mother's disgrace.
1. Hikifune

The girl was running faster than she ever had before - so fast that her feet pounded against the soft ground, the impact sending shockwaves of pain all the way from her knees to her chest. Her Shinigami robes (and indeed, most of her face) were caked in a mixture of dirt, blood and sweat, the palms of her hands were blistered and bleeding. Outstretched in her right hand was her Zanpakuto - a slimline wakizashi that answered to 'Umiko'. The blade was spotted in blood.

_Crack_

A stray twig scratched against her face and blood began to flow.

_Whoosh_

She stumbled, though used the momentum to travel faster. Finally, gasping for air, she arrived at the forest clearing. Her chest heaved and she was sure she had leaves in her hair but pushed all thoughts aside at the sight of the monster in front of her.

She had been chasing the thing for many weeks, investigating a series of mysterious deaths that racked the poorest districts of Rukongai. It was not unusual for Hollows to gather in such areas, despite what was usually a very low level of reiatsu. On the contrary, most Hollows scavenged on these areas, preying on the absolute lowest of the low. What was unusual, however, was the eyewitness accounts that followed these attacks. If they were to be believed, and until recently the girl had been neutral on that front, then these eyewitnesses had all heard music shortly before the Hollows appeared to ravage their victims and after they finished. Even more strangely, the Hollows focussed on one kill and one kill only. No matter how many people threw rocks at them, lit their bodies on fire, the Hollows did not respond, waiting until the music sounded again to return to reality and leave.

Naturally, everyone on the thirteen squads was perplexed, even moreso when preliminary investigations revealed that not only were the attacks carried out in districts that could not possibly communicate with one another, eliminating the possibility that it was all some sort of prank, but they seemed to follow a pattern. Each attack had happened at sundown on the 3rd of the month.

The girl had been sent out to observe Hollow behaviour in the last of the poorest districts to remain. Hayaido - a place that stank so strongly of blood and piss that she had had to bite her lip to avoid wretching.

She strengthened her grip on Umiko and winced at the sting from her broken hands.

"Did you think I wouldn't catch you?" she panted. "How dare you be so presumptuous!"

The Hollow took in the sheen of her sweaty face, the bloody wound on her cheek and said nothing. Had she not known any better, the girl might have assumed that from its behaviour it simply had not noticed her, except she knew that was not the case. She had cut off two of its legs, after all, and she could feel its eyes boring into her the whole time. It was almost as if it had no interest in her, which was even harder to believe than the strange accounts that had caused her to investigate in the first place.

Then, there it was, exactly as the witnesses had claimed. A strange kind of music drifted through the trees, music quite unlike anything the girl had heard before. It did not sound like any kind of instrument she had ever come across and made all of the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was a sad sort of tune, though high pitched and lovely and the girl was unable to tear her attentions away from it.

_What the hell is happening?_ she thought, trying to think clearly and plan her next move, but ultimately failing miserably. The music muffled her every thought; it was like trying to make out a whisper in a crowded room.

The music stopped as quickly as it had started and the girl squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to clear her mind. She glanced across at the Hollow and saw that it was shaking its head in an effort to do the same. She jumped, Umiko extended in front of her while the Hollow remained still and embedded it deep in its mask.

Her mission had only ever been to investigate, not to get directly involved, though as the Hollow's body disintegrated into thin air before her eyes her thoughts went back to the music. Things had just gotten a whole lot more complicated than a few Hollow attacks and strange witness accounts. Chewing the inside of her mouth and sheathing her zanpakuto, the girl wondered with a certain amount of dread how on earth she was ever going to explain any of it to her captain. 


	2. Hotaru

As one girl breathed a sigh of irritation, another stood in front of a mirror. Her robes were a steely shade of blue and embroidered with water lilies - the emblem of her noble family. She had bathed for several hours that day, scrubbed at her skin until she was pink as a newly born babe. Even as she stood there, fully clothed, her hair still bordered on the damp side.

This girl always made a conscious effort with her appearance but today was special, requiring more effort than usual. It was a day she had dreaded for many months and goodness knows how many years. The commanding sect of the thirteen Shinigami squads, better known as Central 46, was made up of various noble born citizens. It was regarded as a great honour to sit in the conference hall and give judgement on the daily running of the squads, one that the girl's grandfather had promised her since she was old enough to talk.

_On the eve of your thirteenth birthday, Hotaru, I will take you with me,_ she remembered him saying so long ago. _Make sure you are beautiful by then, my dear, they all will be looking at you._

She had never understood the meaning of his words, why any of the nobles would bother looking at her, though the older she got and more beautiful as her grandfather had so kindly requested, she attributed it to her flawless features and bright eyes. Eyes so much brighter than any of her cousins', sharp enough to spot the hatred in theirs.

Yes, that was right, all of them hated her, her cousins and their mothers in equal measure. They were not at all gentle when they combed her hair, pinched when they dressed her in such exquisite robes. She would have to have been blind not to notice their jealousy - it was quite unusual for an unmarried young woman to make an appearance at Central 46 and her grandfather had never so much as mentioned it to her cousins, let alone promise them an outing. She was his clear favourite, had the best food from the table and the nicest clothes.

And that was what confused her so much about her outing to Central 46. The administrative duties did not interest her in the slightest. She knew next to nothing about the rules and regulations Shinigami had to follow, much less how to make decisions on their behalf. She did not want to insult her grandfather, but she was about as excited about visiting the Shiningami conference hall as she was about the pain of childbirth.

A knock to her dressing room door dragged her out of her thoughts and, with the sweetest, most feminine voice she had in her arsenal she called 'Come in'. She immediately leaped into the arms of the man who stepped inside, regardless of how his grip creased her clothes or his kisses dislodged the various ornaments in her hair.

Her brother, Haruka, often seemed to be the only person in her family that actually liked her and she loved him as much as she hated everybody else. He was as masculine as she was delicate, taller than all of her other male cousins and had the same grey eyes that she did. His arms were strong and warm, arms that had wrapped themselves around her when she was much younger and prone to nightmares.

She took in his smell as he held her, the mix of bath salts and steel that seemed to enclose his person. Her brother was ten years her senior and a member of the King's Guard, higher in rank than all of the commanding officers of the thirteen guards, which even the girl had to admit was impressive. However, the privilege came at a cost - namely that Haruka was rarely around to speak to.

He laughed and buried his face in her hair.

"Hey, Ru-chan, if I didn't know any better I'd say you missed me," he said.

Haruka was the only person with a pet name for her. Everybody else called her Naraku-sama or, at a push, Hotaru-sama. Everybody spoke to her as if they didn't know her - all except for Haruka. Darling Haruka, who would ferret drumsticks and greasy breads into her room when they were children since Hotaru's inability to hold chopsticks in the manner expected of a noblewoman meant she often went to bed hungry. The pair of them conspired as they dragged flesh from bone with their fingers and grease dripped down their chins.

"Of course I missed you," said Hotaru as she reluctantly left his embrace. "You've been gone for such a long time. I'm starting to think it was a terrible idea you joining the King."

Haruka laughed at her bitter words.

"The King is an honourable man, Ru-chan, and it would be better if you remembered that," he said, pausing to observe her sullen expression. "Now what on earth is the matter with you?"

Hotaru didn't know how it was that he read her every move as if she was a picture book, yet it was an enormous weight off her shoulders to finally have someone to talk to.

"Grandfather intends to take me to the Central 46," she said. "I don't want to go - I have more important things to do-"

"Ah, like reading banned books?"

Hotaru blushed a bright red at his accusation. Each of the noble houses prided themselves on something and in the case of the Naraku family this was kidou. Not the same sort of aggressive kidou used by Shinigami, but a gentler, more delicate sort that the women used to create things of beauty, and in turn attract better husbands. Their ancestor, Naraku Gyra, had been the King's magician, delighting the royal court by turning grown men into chickens and using the feathers as darts. He had been able to levitate things, bring statues to life and so much more. His kidou was an innocent, borderline vain creation, as it meant female children were no longer a curse. From being young girls in main Naraku families were taught kidou - to grab all of the attention from women of other houses. Hotaru did not know when exactly it had been adapted for warfare.

What she did know, however, was that her mother had been exceptionally talented-capable of making dead flowers bloom once again and creating horses out of flames. She was so talented, in fact, that many nobles still referred to her as the Gyra of her generation. The banned book, as Haruka referred to it, was the manuscript of an enormous textbook detailing the 'art of kidou'. The manuscript was unfinished and divided into three volumes, one and a half of which were actually published. The most important detail, however, and the reason it had survived so many years in the Naraku household following their mother's disgrace was that it was written in her tidy handwriting and still smelled of her were you to hold the papers close enough.

Hotaru had only been a baby when her mother was disgraced and no one wished to speak of her any more. She did not know what it was that her mother had done that was so terrible that no one would speak about it. Hotaru and Haruka had been shipped off to live with their grandparents shortly afterwards and all of their mother's possessions were locked in their grandfather's study -including that manuscript. It belonged to Hotaru and Haruka but they were expressly forbidden from going anywhere near it.

"That manuscript is ours, Haruka," Hotaru snarled. "Our mother would have wanted us to read it."

There was no use denying she had read the manuscript - she knew the truth would have been abundantly clear from her reaction.

"Mother would have wanted us to do many things, I imagine," he said. "But she's not here."

Hotaru bit her lip and said nothing. Sometimes, as much as she loved Haruka, it was all she could do to prevent herself from slapping him across the face. She liked to think of her mother as the elegant creature all of the stories seemed to suggest, rather than a disgraced woman who did something so hideous that no one was permitted to talk about it.

"Don't worry about Central 46," said Haruka, taking her silence as agreement. "I'll be there with you and just between you and me, Grandfather has requested that Central 46 hold their meeting at midnight, as he intends to make a grand announcement."

At first Hotaru meant to ask why midnight, but she slowly began to understand. At the stroke of midnight she would be thirteen, the age when most girls began to think of marriage. A grand announcement at midnight, in front of all the other nobles surely suggested bragging and, what's more, it seemed her brother had come home from his duties as the King's Guard just for it. Along with his warning about insulting the King, her suspicions were peaked.

"Could it be…" she said, the words catching in her throat. "That Grandfather intends to marry me into the royal family?"

Haruka laughed once again and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

For the first time in almost thirteen years, Hotaru worked hard to contain her squeal of excitement.


	3. Genda

Captain Genda of the 12th squad was a short, aging man with greying hair and thick glasses. His face was heavily creased from late nights writing by the light of a candle, a habit he had not lost even as he grew older. During the many years he had commanded as the 12th squad captain, and for many of the years before that, he had never been surprised or confused by anything that happened in front of him or anyone said.

This was far from the case when his fukutaicho, Hikifune Kirio, came knocking at his door in the middle of the night with a report from her latest mission. He had meant to scold her upon her return as he had sent her out in an investigatory capacity intending her to only be gone a matter of days. However, several weeks had passed before she returned and when she did, it was in a crazed state, with twigs in her hair, dirt on her face and the strangest tale he had ever heard. Genda thought she must have gone quite mad.

He was on his third cup of tea and still could not make sense of her story. He had offered her several too in the hopes she would calm down and recount a logical sequence of events but she declined each one.

Genda would never admit it to her face, but he was really rather fond of Hikifune, who despite her youth was one of the most rational people on his squad. She saw things as they were and not as she wanted them to be, which was a gift even among her superiors. That was why it was so odd that she seemed so taken with the music she thought she had heard - it was quite unlike her.

"Please describe the music to me," he said, giving into his curiosities.

"It was…" Hikifune searched for words to describe it. "It was sad."

"Sad? In what way?" Genda pressed. He would have to present these findings to the Commander General if they proved suspicious and he needed something coherent to prevent embarrassment in front of the other captains.

"I don't know how to explain it," Hikifune admitted, an apologetic expression across her face. "It just made me feel sad somehow and the Hollow didn't move."

"Could you narrow it down to a particular instrument…A flute or a Shamisen?"

"I've never heard anything like it before."

Genda rested his face on his hands. Sometimes being a captain was far more hassle than it was worth. On the one hand he had a bunch of events that made no sense at all and on the other he had his fukutaicho who didn't have the imaginative scope to make them up.

"And you are certain that it wasn't the wind in the trees or some kind of bird?"

Hikifune bit her bottom lip. She had picked up on his doubts.

"I'm positive. I spent weeks in those woods but I didn't hear music until then."

Genda leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples with the air of an exhaustion. Hikifune clamped her hands together and pressed them against her chest.

"Please tell me you've heard of something like this before." she pleaded. "I'm not making it up, Genda-taicho!"

Genda took a sip of tea and smiled.

"Now, Hikifune, did I ever say you were making it up?"

Hikifune blushed in silent gratitude, while Genda pulled a plain piece of paper from his desk drawer and a calligraphy brush from another.

"So…we are all ready miles behind our original deadline to pass on our findings to Central, which means if we want to request more time for a more in depth analysis our argument needs to be pretty damn persuasive…" he said, dipping his brush into a nearby pot of ink. "What are we certain of?"

Generally speaking, the application process between captain and Central was supposed to be confidential. Captains were not supposed to share the details with other, lesser ranking individuals, who could easily pass on confidential information without understanding the consequences. However, Genda rarely saw this actually done as it was far more appealing to pass on the tedious amounts of paperwork to subordinates or, as in this case, to view the situation with fresh eyes.

Hikifune thought carefully before answering.

"The poor villages were not attacked at random and we can now confirm that the eyewitness accounts were correct and the attacks can be linked by several common factors - the music, the time and the place. Each attack took place at sundown in one of the poorest areas of Rukongai and the music has some sort of strange power over the Hollows," she said. "The one I encountered acted very unusually. I did not recognise a possible source for the music."

Genda made notes and nodded every so often to show he was still listening. When he had finished, he lifted his brush to signal for Hikifune to carry on.

"While we do not understand the source of this music, we cannot ignore the fact that it poses a threat to the peace of the Soul Society and therefore…" she said, trailing off to think, finally giving up and smiling broadly. "We require more time to fully investigate!"

Genda chuckled at the brisk conclusion and set his brush down.

"Very good - you might make Captain yet," he said. "Now, Hikifune, how fast can you run?"

This question caught her quite off guard and she crumpled up her face in confusion.

"Quite fast…?"

Genda climbed to his feet and picked up the paper from his desk.

"Good. The Central 46 are meeting at midnight and we might just be able to catch them," he said, walking towards his office door. He spotted Hikifune's expression and pointed at his chest. "Don't ask me why they're meeting at such a ridiculous time - it was all Old Man Naraku's idea. You know how vain the nobles are-probably just wants to show them the designs for his new mansion."


	4. Hotaru II

Haruka held her hand all the way from the Naraku manor to the HQ of the Gotei 13. Hotaru decided that even if he had made her angry earlier she was grateful he had made the trip. They left home in an elaborate square carriage decorated with silks and pulled by fat oxen, which did not have any windows and was something of a disappointment. It meant that the scenery outside could not distract her from her thoughts or give her something else to focus on besides what her grandfather had planned for her.

Hotaru had learned many years before that the meetings at Central 46 had two purposes: the first was the obvious administrative job, the second was to show off familial wealth to other lesser ranking noble houses. The Naraku clan was one of the four high noble houses, rivalled only by the Kuchiki, Shihoin and Shiba and so there was no real need for grand gestures, but her grandfather insisted on them anyway. He had custom made robes for the occasion and decorated his fat fingers with equally fat rings, all the while adorning his unnaturally long eyelashes with golden feathers.

As they travelled, he leaned back in his seat and picked grapes from a silver platter he kept beside him. He was uninterested by most things - even Haruka's stories of serving in the King's Guard - and Hotaru's stomach fluttered when she considered that he might have secured her a royal husband. She couldn't wait to brag to her cousins about it later on and watch them gasp in shock. They would have to be nice to her when she was Queen of all Soul Society.

A wry smile made its way across her face as she considered that she would not have to be nice to them at all.

They arrived at the Seireitei with buckets of time to spare - their carriage was the first one there. The driver handed their names into the sentry guards at the access point - Hotaru did not see them, but their voices were loud and booming and she assumed they must be very large men indeed - and drove the carriage through the gates.

Haruka climbed out first and helped Hotaru climb down, followed by their grandfather. He made a great fuss about all of his hair ornaments and every time Haruka repositioned himself his response was to order him to move as 'this one was very expensive'. None of the servants volunteered for the job, Hotaru noticed with a degree of irritation.

She used the time to take in her surroundings as it was the first time she had ever laid eyes on such a place and, if she was to brag about visiting, it only made sense that she should be able to describe it in ludicrous amounts of detail.

The buildings there were on the cheap side, made of wood rather than stone and with two levels at most. The windows were small and dotted the walls at such irregular intervals that she could not help but wonder if they were only added as an afterthought. She wrinkled up her nose at the thought of having to venture inside one of those buildings and silently prayed the Central 46 chambers were more tasteful.

The few people she could see scattered around the area were dressed in shabby black robes and they regarded the three visitors as one might view a circus animal before the show has commenced. Hotaru noticed that the second their eyes fell on her, their jaws dropped and they nudged anyone close enough by. Hotaru supposed they were fascinated with her elaborate clothes and pretty face and paid them no heed.

As soon as her grandfather had safely reached the ground with all of his hair ornaments intact he led them away from all of the buildings and towards a barren area of field. As barren fields went it was fairly ordinary, with dry, brown grass and no flowers to speak of, though the strange thing was that for some reason the area was surrounded by masked guards wearing robes that covered everything except their eyes. Hotaru had never seen anything like it and hoped that she never would have to again.

Her grandfather approached the guards and handed the nearest one a letter, presumably some sort of invitation, which was immediately opened and scrutinised. She watched in confusion as the guard stroked a single finger down the middle of the paper, though it all clicked into place when a black butterfly emerged. It was a very basic kidou spell, _Arawasu_ (written 現す)_,_ one she had practised countless times. It was a 'revelation' type, used to show something hidden. The black butterfly's spirit signature must have been embedded into the paper and then hidden as a kind of seal of authenticity.

As she expected, the guards seemed satisfied and stepped back onto the field behind them. The one with the letter drew a sword from their belt and tapped the point of the blade against the floor. She realised it was a more advanced version of the same kidou enchantment as before - the 'lock and key' version. She had used that one only once - to hide her diary. The fact was that while the _Arawasu_ was very useful, it had a fatal flaw and that was that anyone could use it. The 'lock and key' variation was exactly the same in practice until the final stage, where the user inserted an extra layer of spirit energy -referred to as reiatsu in her textbooks - to 'lock' the hidden object. The lock would only open when it came back into contact with the 'key' - that is, the reiatsu signature of the original caster. All reiatsu signatures were unique to the individual they belonged to, after all, just like fingerprints. Once an object was hidden from view and 'locked', only the person who locked it away in the first place could reveal it, meaning it was simple to hide objects even from kidou users.

Hotaru watched as the ground began to move at the touch of the guard's sword and made a wager with herself that the swords of all the guards had been enriched with one person's reiatsu so they could be used as keys. The ground shifted and changed shape until it was fully transformed into a flight of stone steps leading down into what appeared to be some kind of cellar. She glanced across at Haruka and her grandfather and was filled with a smug sense of satisfaction when she noticed that they watched the process with blank expressions. Kidou was the pride of their clan, its intricacies their birthright, and yet she would have betted her inheritance that neither of them could figure out how the chambers were opened. Naturally, any of her female relatives could have worked it out as she had, but she was willing to ignore that.

The guard that had opened up the chamber stepped forward, presumably to escort them to the conference hall, scanning the three of them in the process. When this stranger's gaze fell on her, Hotaru felt it linger and all of a sudden the guard was on its hands and knees in front of her, sobbing.

"My lady," the guard wept. "My lady…you've returned!"

He (Hotaru had determined he must be male from how deep his voice was) ripped off his mask and clutched hold of her hand. She found herself staring into his face as he sobbed. She guessed he was in his mid-thirties, as the youth in his face was still apparent, but betrayed by the odd wrinkle and grey hair. He had chestnut hair and bright green eyes that shone with tears. Hotaru did not like the way he stared into her eyes as if he knew her.

"My lady! Don't you remember me?" he wept, desperation creeping into his words. "It's me - Tominoya Akira!"

His grip on her hand tightened as he mentioned his name and she turned to her brother, eyes wide, wordlessly pleading for him to intervene. Her grandfather and Haruka both watched, with a strange expression across their faces, as if none of what was happening shocked them. In fact, Hotaru was sure she detected a glint of annoyance in their eyes, as if they had _known_ it would happen.

Tominoya Akira's sobs turned into howls of despair and finally her brother caved. He took hold of her arm and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Ah, common folk and their delusions," he said, smiling widely.

The other guards reacted at once, dragging the sobbing man to his feet and begging for forgiveness. Hotaru noticed that none of their eyes met hers as they did so. Another guard was given the task of accompanying them into the conference hall and the three of them followed into the dark. Even over the sounds of their footsteps on the stone, the man's cries were deafening.

Haruka's hand did not leave her arm.


	5. Yali

The girl did not know how long the thing had been chasing her.

She had been searching for something to eat in the undergrowth when she first heard the screams.

She was taller than most other people in her district, with long legs and a narrow, streamlined body. She prided herself on her ability to outstrip almost anyone in a race but this was the first time she had ever had to run for her life.

It was also the first time she knew for a fact that she was going to lose.


End file.
